As any of us who grew up around here knows, October is the time of year parents tended to shout at us to get our keisters in the car because we were going up north to see the leaves. We weren’t one of those privileged “chalet” families, so the foliage I remember admiring came via the back window of our Volvo. We’d “do” the Saints (Sauveur, Agathe and Adèle) and then the Vals (Morin and David) before traipsing into old-school hotels like Grey Rocks, La Sapinière and Le Chanteclerc for a hot chocolate before hitting the 15 South back home. That, to me, was the typical October outing, which obviously left its mark, because I always get this pang of nostalgia when I spot an especially red maple, a retro Laurentians hotel or a cup of cocoa.

Like wine and maple syrup, foliage admiration seems to have its good or “cru” years, and with this hot summer and warm fall, 2012 has been one of the best — and I’m saying that as someone who has been sitting on an Adirondack chair in the Laurentians for the past while watching it happen.

Instead of just reading about it, I prefer admiring it first-hand. Yes, you can do the day trip up to the country, but if possible, my preference is to make a two-day mini-vacay out of it, and toss a restaurant meal into the mix. And this year, instead of the usual hour-from-the-city comfort zone, I headed to the Gatineau, where the leaves were unusually stunning. Post sight- and leaf-seeing, my destination was Les Fougères, a wonderful restaurant a mere two hours drive from Montreal. And I say mere only because if you opt to take a few bosky side roads, it goes by in a snap.

Located in the little town of Chelsea in the Gatineau Hills, a 15-minute drive north of Ottawa, Les Fougères has long been regarded as one of Quebec’s top tables and is now celebrating its 18-year anniversary. My first taste of this restaurant came via an especially toothsome duck tourtière I enjoyed at a friend’s house near Wakefield, a quaint little town nearby famous for its bakeries, eateries and artsy scene. There is a terrific store attached to Les Fougères that sells all sorts of ready-made foods as well as kitchen supplies and cookbooks.

The sight of freezers filled with appealing soups, quiches and tourtières made me wish more Montreal restaurants would jump on the prêt-a-manger bandwagon. The profits from meat pie sales alone could probably cover a few waiters’ salaries.

The restaurant beside the gourmet shop is very pretty in a simple sort of way. The furniture is all blondy maple wood, the white walls are hung with Canadian art and there’s a series of windows overlooking a lovely backyard garden. Yet as unadorned as it is, this room transforms from plain to warm as it fills with customers, and on the Tuesday I dined here, the space was close to full with couples and groups speaking both French and English. There is nothing grand about Les Fougères, yet there’s no doubt this is a restaurant designed for special occasions.

The menu is adjective heavy, and chef Charles Part favours sustainable seafood, Canadian ingredients and homemade everything. To begin, I couldn’t resist a plate of his homemade charcuterie, which included a gently flavoured veal and sweetbread terrine with a fennel and orange salad, a second terrine made with foie gras served on a bed of sautéed apples, two slices of smoked duck breast enhanced with a cranberry compote, and a pâté de campagne made with wild boar, pork and hazelnuts served with mustard pickle.

I’ve had my fair share of charcuterie lately in Montreal restaurants, but what I liked best about this selection was the attention given to the accompaniments and the flawless seasoning. And it all just looked so elegant.

The second starter featured another familiar ingredient, this time seared scallops. Set in a smoked haddock soup flavoured with Indian spices, the single golden scallop was perfect and the potage was robust in its spicing, though a little too robust for me to detect much in the way of haddock flavour. Not that I could pick haddock out at, say, a blind tasting of North Atlantic sea creatures, but that haddock didn’t make its mark.

Main courses lift the menu from reasonably priced in the appetizer category to pricey in the mains. And when I say pricey, I mean in the $30 range, which is high for a dish like, say, my $36 main course duck confit. And yet this portion was so generous and the duck was so delicious that it merits its hefty price. Served on a potato galette with a layer of goat’s cheese and a handful of sautéed spinach, the duck was killerly crisp on the outside, melting within and just fatty enough for the meat to glisten without being greasy. Superb. I share plates when I dine out and I cannot deny I had a tough time handing this one over to my dining companion without finishing it.

But when I received his braised lamb cassoulet, I didn’t mind so much as the tender braised lamb shoulder was served on a stew of white beans, along with a piece of lamb shank and a small lamb sausage. Enriched with wine, garlic and balsamic vinegar, I feared the dish would be too strong, too rich. And yet it all worked brilliantly, even the wilted greens and little breadcrumb-crusted tomato that sat on top of it all.

Wine is taken seriously at Les Fougères, and its list offers an excellent selection of well-priced bottles from around the New World and Old. If you are lucky, you’ll be served by the oh-so-affable Véronique Rivest, recently crowned Canada’s best sommelier; she works at the restaurant a few days a week. The bottle we chose, a Domaine Le Roc des Anges 2010, provided the ideal pairing for our meaty meal and at $52 shows what terrific value there is to be had in the still-to-be-discovered Roussillon region of France.

If you still have a few sips of wine to polish off or are willing to go back to a glass of white, the cheese course here is a treat. The menu lists eight selections, all written up in great detail, from the area and around the province. How nice to see such an effort made for cheese, a course that has, sadly, fallen out of favour in Montreal.

Dessert is also de rigueur as there are both traditional and more modern sweets. I inhaled the sugar pie in about five bites along with the cut fresh fruit and accompanying cloud of cream. Even better was the dense dark chocolate and salted nut caramel cake served with a dark chocolate peanut mousse and pecan gelato covered in caramel-soaked pecans. It’s hard to go wrong with a dessert that includes caramelized anything with chocolate, yet this one was especially scrumptious thanks to all the textures and temperatures at play. And all those lovely hits of chocolate didn’t hurt, either.

Though service wasn’t razor sharp (they could use another waiter on the floor), our every whim was met. The evening was extremely civilized, and the ambience in the room was so different from the usual Montreal vibe that I felt a nice little sense of escape without having to drive too far away or board a plane. And then there was that drive, a blur of yellows, reds and golds — breathtaking scenery that makes Quebec the most beautiful place in the world in October. What fun to soak it all up at Les Fougères, a destination restaurant that stimulates all the senses.

criticsnotebook@gmail.comTwitter:@LesleyChestrman

For more food and wine talk, tune in to Dinner Rush with Lesley Chesterman on Saturdays from 4 to 5 p.m. on News Talk Radio CJAD 800.

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